Written Answers Thursday 16 June 2005

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any approaches to the European Union by the Irish Government in respect of proposals to change the penalties in respect of agricultural subsidies and, if so, whether it intends to support these proposals.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive is not aware of any such approach having been made. Were any proposal to be made we would of course wish to consider our position, in conjunction with other parts of the UK.

  The Scottish Executive is of course committed to ensuring that a penalty regime for the Single Farm Payment is proportionate and fair and to learning from experience elsewhere in the implementation of farm subsidies.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage change in air passenger numbers using Kirkwall and Stornoway has been since the introduction of Sunday air services.

Nicol Stephen: Passenger numbers using Kirkwall and Stornoway Airports in 2004-05 were 17.7% and 26.9% respectively higher than passenger numbers in 2001-02 – the year before Sunday services were introduced. The percentage of total passengers using Kirkwall and Stornoway Airports on Sundays in 2004-05 was 8.7% and 6% respectively.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many new air services from Scottish airports were initially subject to support from the Route Development Fund.

Nicol Stephen: A total of 27 year-round routes have been supported by the Route Development Fund since the inception of the scheme by the Scottish Executive.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many air services from Scottish airports initiated under the Route Development Fund scheme are still operating.

Nicol Stephen: A total of 27 year-round routes have been supported since the inception of the Route Development Fund by the Scottish Executive. Of these routes, seven have ceased and the remaining 20 routes are continuing to operate on a year-round basis.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many services subject to support from the Route Development Fund have been withdrawn or otherwise ceased and what these services cost the Executive.

Nicol Stephen: Of the total 27 year-round routes supported since the inception of the Executive’s Route Development Fund (RDF), seven have subsequently ceased.

  The RDF is structured to ensure that investment is only provided when the airline has carried passengers to and from Scotland. Payments are made in arrears on the production of invoices by the airports. This enables the risk to the public sector investment element to be mitigated. The level of investment in the routes that no longer operate was a total of £95,423.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which consultant assisted it in assessing the routes and airlines for Route Development Fund assistance.

Nicol Stephen: The consultancies which assisted in Route Development Fund assessments were AviaSolutions and York Aviation. The website addresses of the companies are: www.aviasolutions.co.uk and www.yorkaviation.co.uk .

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which consultant has been assisting it with its review of the HITRANS proposals and whether it has employed any other aviation consultants on similar reviews.

Nicol Stephen: The consultancy company employed by the Scottish Executive is AviaSolutions. The company’s website address is www.aviasolutions.co.uk No other consultancy has been employed.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which permanent senior staff of the consultant assisting it with its review of the HITRANS’ proposals have worked with major international airlines as airline route planners, airline economics specialists or in similar capacities and for how long.

Nicol Stephen: The consultancy company employed by the Scottish Executive is AviaSolutions. The company’s website address is www.aviasolutions.co.uk on which the key personnel are listed.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average increase in the use of air services within the Highlands and Islands has been in the last 15 years compared with the increase in air passengers to and from Scotland and what the reasons are for any difference.

Nicol Stephen: Over the last 15 years, the average increase in air passengers in the Highlands and Islands was 0.7% per annum compared to 8.5% per annum for Scotland.

  The principal reasons for the difference are the commencement of air services by no-frills carriers at Scotland’s main airports and the decline in oil related traffic at airports in the Highlands and Islands.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on which EU countries use public service obligations (PSOs) to support air service networks in remote communities, how many services PSOs cover and how this position compares with the situation in the Highlands and Islands.

Nicol Stephen: The EU countries which use Public Service Obligations (PSOs) under EC Regulation 2408/92 to support air service networks, including routes in and to peripheral communities, are:

  France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Portugal Spain Sweden United Kingdom.

  The Scottish Executive does not have definitive up-to-date information on the number of PSOs imposed on air routes in these countries. The 2002 HITRANS’ commissioned report Public Service Obligations in Europe: a comparative study compared the extent to which PSOs are applied across different European Union/European Economic Area member states and features of the way PSOs are applied in each country.

  The 16 PSOs which have been imposed on lifeline air routes in the Highlands and Islands are as follows:

  
three by the Scottish Executive to Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra from Glasgow;
six by Orkney Islands Council to Westray, Papa Westray, North Ronaldsay, Eday, Stronsay and Sanday from Kirkwall;
five by Shetland Islands Council to Foula, Papa Stour, Out Skerries, Fair Isle and Unst (not operated) from Tingwall/Sumburgh, and
two by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar between Stornoway-Benbecula and Benbecula-Barra.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons are for the delay in implementing the HITRANS proposals for enhanced air services in the Highlands and Islands, given its support for these proposals in the partnership agreement.

Nicol Stephen: The Partnership Agreement committed the Scottish Executive to fully evaluate the HITRANS’ proposals for a Highlands and Islands air network. Further work, commissioned by HITRANS, developed its proposals and this has been similarly evaluated. With this evaluation now complete, my priority is to get on and deliver the economic and social benefits which improved air services and bus fares can bring for the Highlands and Islands.

Air Services

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it, or its consultants, have had with Loganair on the review of the HITRANS proposals for enhanced air services in the Highlands and Islands and whether any other regional airlines were contacted as part of this review.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive and its consultant have discussed the technical and operational feasibility of the HITRANS’ proposals with Loganair and other airlines serving the Highlands and Islands.

Climate Change

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when the transport strategic projects review will commence and how it will take account of the need to tackle climate change emissions.

Nicol Stephen: The partnership agreement commits the Executive to starting the strategic projects review before 2007. It will prioritise strategic transport projects for the next decade looking beyond the current £3 billion investment plan. The environmental impact of each project, including greenhouse gas emissions from transport, will be considered fully in the assessment process.

Consultation Exercises

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultation responses it received from (a) local authorities and government agencies and (b) other consultees in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03, (v) 2003-04 and (vi) 2004-05.

Mr Tom McCabe: This information is not held centrally.

Crime

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of robberies in each year since 1993 involved young people as either (a) the victim, (b) the offender or (c) both in (i) Scotland and (ii) each police force area.

Cathy Jamieson: The statistics available centrally on crimes of robbery recorded by the police do not distinguish the circumstances of the crime, such as the age of the victim or offender.

Cycling

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in the provision of new cycling facilities by each local authority.

Nicol Stephen: Cycling Scotland, which is core funded by the Executive, published in March 2005 a national assessment of local authorities’ performance on cycling provision, which included summaries of the facilities provided by each authority. I have arranged for copies of the report to be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 36748).

Cycling

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in increasing cycle use in Scotland in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive does not collect statistics of cycle use in each year for each local authority area.

  Some statistics about cycle use by local authority area are available from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). This is designed to provide estimates for most local authority areas for two-year periods, including (a) the percentage of households with one or more bicycles which can be used by adults; (b) the percentage of adults who made a trip of more than a quarter of a mile by bicycle for certain purposes on one or more of the previous seven days; (c) the percentage who usually cycle to work; (d) the percentage who usually cycle to school, and (e) the percentage of journeys reported by adults which were made by bicycle.

  Such statistics for each local authority area appear in the Scottish Executive's Transport Statistics bulletins of SHS results, which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, such as: Transport across Scotland in 2001 and 2002: some SHS results for parts of Scotland (Bib. number 30990) and SHS Travel Diary results for 2002 (Bib. number 32737).

Environmental Protection Act 1990

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many fixed penalty notices have been issued to date under section 55 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 in relation to offences committed under sections 33(1)(a) or (c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and, if the information is not available, whether it intends to collate such information centrally and, if so, when, and how often, it will be available.

Ross Finnie: This information is not held centrally and the Scottish Executive has no plans to directly collect statistics relating to fixed penalty notices. However, local authorities are being encouraged to join Flycapture, a national data base for flytipping incidents which is funded by the Scottish Executive, and this has the facility to record the use of fixed penalty notices.

Fire Service

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what provision is made to allow fire and rescue services to access rivers, lochs and other waterways for the purpose of specialist rescue training, both initial and on-going, at local venues.

Hugh Henry: The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 confers a range of powers and duties on Fire and Rescue Authorities, including a power to respond to non-fire situations which may cause death or injury. Not all the Fire and Rescue Authorities have a declared water rescue capability. It would be for those authorities which have such a capability to make the necessary access arrangements with the appropriate authorities in their areas to enable training to be undertaken safely.

Higher Education

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many university departments have closed in each year since 1997, broken down by subject.

Mr Jim Wallace: While the Scottish Executive takes an obvious interest in department closures within institutions, records of the total number of closures over time are not held centrally.

  Responsibility to ensure adequate provision is maintained across the higher education sector lies with the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.

Housing

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2O-6781 by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 May 2005, what the timescale is for the transfer of stock from each of the seven local authorities that have joined the community ownership housing programme

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows.

  Project plans are submitted to Communities Scotland by each local authority on the Community Ownership Programme. On the basis of these plans and subject to ballots of tenants’ wish to transfer, the following table provides local authorities’ target dates for completion of their respective transfers.

  

 Local Authority Area
 Target Date for Stock Transfer


 Argyll and Bute
 Dec 2005


 Western Isles
 May 2006


 Stirling
 Sep 2006


 Inverclyde
 Aug 2006


 Renfrewshire
 Aug 2006


 City of Edinburgh
 Dec 2006


 Highland
 Mar 2007

International Development

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what input local authorities will have to the Scotland/Malawi initiative and whether Blantyre in South Lanarkshire will have any particular role.

Patricia Ferguson: Officials from the Scottish Executive’s International Division and I are in close contact with COSLA and a number of local authorities with regard to their international development efforts. Funding has already been provided to local authorities for their tsunami reconstruction work, and officials are currently in the process of organising a meeting with COSLA to further discuss how we may cooperate in taking forward our international development work.

  Also, all Scottish local authorities have been invited to submit a concept note for funding from the international development fund. Any funding request from South Lanarkshire will be given the same consideration as the other applications.

  We do, however, recognise the importance of Blantyre as the birthplace of Livingstone and we would encourage development of links between Malawi, Blantyre and Scotland as a whole.

Legal Services Ombudsman

Bill Aitken (Glasgow) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the salary is of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman and how many hours she works per week.

Hugh Henry: The Ombudsman’s current salary is £43,340 (pro-rata £53,452) and she works 29 hours 36 minutes per week. The Ombudsman worked full time between January and May 2005 (37 hours per week).

Maritime Issues

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what its response was, as a statutory consultee, to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in respect of the proposed ship-to-ship transfer of oil in the Firth of Forth by Melbourne Marine Services of Sunderland.

Lewis Macdonald: The Environment and Rural Affairs Department replied to the relevant documentation on 22 April 2005. A copy of the letter has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 36799).

Ministerial Correspondence

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister will reply to my letter of 3 March 2005 regarding bank accounts for employees who are not UK citizens.

Ms Margaret Curran: Mr Tom McCabe, the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform, replied on 13 June 2005.

Prison Service

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16439 by Cathy Jamieson on 25 May 2005, what actions it has taken to ensure that Premier Custodial Group Ltd has implemented Sheriff Croan’s recommendations and whether those recommendations have been implemented.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  None. Such decisions are a matter for the company who have said that they have implemented the recommendations as indicated in my response to S2W-16439.

Prison Service

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have not been examined by a registered mental health nurse since January 2002, broken down by prison.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  It is not possible to separate the contribution of registered mental health nurses within the professional nursing teams.

  The statistical information requested is not available.

Public Private Partnerships

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15656 by Mr Tom McCabe on 13 April 2005, whether any work has been carried out in relation to the conditions of employment for staff who were employed in Scottish PPP projects, in all sectors, prior to the agreement with the Scottish Trades Union Congress in 2002 or where contracts were already entered into prior to the agreement.

Mr Tom McCabe: The conditions of employment for staff who were employed in Scottish PPP projects prior to the introduction of the PPP Staffing Protocol were the responsibility of the respective public sector procuring bodies which negotiated these contracts, and also were subject to various protections under legislation. It would not have been practicable to apply the protocol retrospectively to existing contracts.

  Prior to the introduction of the protocol general guidance on consultation with staff in PPPs was provided in the Treasury Taskforce Policy Statement No 4 "Disclosure of Information and Consultation with Staff and other Interested Parties" (Bib. number 18318) which was published in 1998.

Rail Network

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce its commitment to the provision of the dynamic loop on the Kilmarnock to Barrhead rail line.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive will meet with Strathclyde Passenger Transport shortly to discuss improving rail services to Ayrshire, including the proposal to construct a dynamic loop on the Glasgow to Kilmarnock line.

Roads

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Aberdeen City Council with a view to improving the Haudagain Roundabout in Aberdeen in order to address congestion.

Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive meets regularly with Aberdeen City Council and with NESTRANS to discuss the trunk road network in and around Aberdeen. We have jointly funded with NESTRANS the development of a traffic model for the Haudagain roundabout and a final report, and options for improvement, based on that modelling work are expected in August.

Roads

Chris Ballance (South of Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that road charges have a major part to play in meeting its pledge to stabilise traffic levels at 2001 levels by 2021, in light of recent proposals by the Secretary of State for Transport.

Nicol Stephen: I welcome the Secretary of State’s speech last week, and agree that the time is right to open the national debate on how a UK road pricing scheme, which could involve restructuring and reducing taxes on motoring, might work.

  However, there is a great deal of work to be done on the practicalities and on the implications for Scotland of any UK scheme. This work will include an analysis of how a scheme can contribute to reducing congestion on our roads, reducing carbon emissions and helping to meet our traffic stabilisation targets.

Roads

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding would be required by each local authority to address the backlog of road repairs.

Nicol Stephen: This is a matter for each individual local authority.

  An additional £60 million per year has been allocated in each of 2006-07 and 2007-08, to help local authorities to address the backlog of maintenance on the local road network.

Scottish Executive Contracts

Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what ICT requests to tender from it, its departments and agencies are currently outstanding or planned for the next year.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive does not hold a central register of all forthcoming projects that will be subject to competitive tendering processes, and therefore could only provide a comprehensive list at disproportionate cost.

  However, some of the Scottish Executive projects which are outstanding (in the sense that the competitive process has started but a contract has not yet been awarded) include:

  
System Integration - a contract for the future development, systems integration and network support of the Scottish Executive’s local and wide area networked computer system.
Hardware Maintenance - a hardware maintenance contract for ICT assets of the Scottish Executive.
Anti–Virus Software – corporate anti-virus software protection for Scottish Executive desktop and laptop computers.
Flexi-Time Management solution – a contract to provide a flexi-time management solution to be deployed across the Scottish Executive, replacing the current manual system.
Feasibility study for a Scottish Private Landlord Register (FITSS2).


  In addition, we are aware of two projects that are planned to go out to tender later in the year:

  
the re-let of the telephone switch hardware maintenance contract.


  Information and Communication Technology Consultancy (FITSS4) - covers advice on technology futures; general technical advice on IT systems, applications and networks including quality assurance; reviews and audits of network design and performance; IT security consultancy and audit, and telecommunications consultancy.

  Many of the Executives ICT requirements are met through existing ICT framework contracts, which are advertised regularly in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Student Loans Company

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the equivalent Scottish figures to the figures which are published in the Annual Report of the Student Loans Company Ltd.

Mr Jim Wallace: The figures which are published in the Student Loans Company Ltd Annual Report are not disaggregated for Scotland and there are no plans to do so.

Telecommunications

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals the Scottish Executive Inquiry Reporters Unit has heard since July 2003 in respect of opposition to the siting of telecommunication masts and how many of these appeals have been successful.

Malcolm Chisholm: Since 1 July 2003, the Scottish Executive Inquiry Reporters Unit has received 77 planning appeals concerning telecommunication masts. Of these appeals, 38 have been successful to date.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Parliamentary Services

Margo MacDonald (Lothians) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what plans it has to improve the working conditions and facilities of translators, in light of the experience of the G8 International Parliamentarians’ Conference on Development in Africa.

John Scott (Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body): The interpretation booths in the Chamber and Committee Rooms comply with the relevant building control standards and meet the requirements of the building brief. In particular, all the booths are significantly bigger than the requirements of ISO 2603. The SPCB have no current plans to make any changes.